Having been a person who had sought change on a local level, I have put some thought into how exactly change comes about. I have come to realize that there are no fewer than three phases when it comes to bringing about change. These three phases are: Dissatisfaction, discontent, and outrage.
I tend to distinguish dissatisfaction from discontent for purely academic reasons, but I'm sure that most would tend to think of the two as being the same. I will attempt to explain the difference between these two phases in this post, and, where possible, provide some examples of each phase.
The first phase, dissatisfaction, is really a case of people being unhappy with current circumstances, but not eager to offer protest or resistance. A good Canadian example of this phase is the budget cuts of the previous Federal Government.
In an effort to control spending, eliminate the deficit, and pay down the federal debt, the Liberal government reneged on their promise to scrap the GST, and embarked on a rather aggressive program of spending and service cuts. While many Canadians were not pleased with this situation, they were tolerant and saw the merit in the governments actions.
The second phase, discontent, manifests itself when people are unhappy with current circumstances and the hesitation to protest or resist becomes negligible. A good Canadian example of this, again sticking with the former federal Liberal government, is the national gun registry.
In an effort to appease anti-crime advocates, and to address gun related crimes, the federal government introduced legislation that would require all gun owners to register their firearms with the government. Gun owners saw this legislation as an assault on law abiding citizens and a useless and expensive facade in the war on gun crime. Further discontent arose when it was revealed that the gun registry was not only a pile of useless legislation, but also a very expensive pile of useless legislation.
The third phase, outrage, occurs when the people are no longer tolerant of the circumstances they find themselves in. The will to protest becomes great and the desire for change becomes pointed and determined. Again, sticking with the former federal Liberal government, I will offer an example of corruption as a launching pad for outrage.
Long dissatisfied with government spending cuts and relatively high taxation, the people would become discontent when they learned that they had been forced to tighten their own belts while the federal government spent billions of dollars on legislation like the gun registry -- legislation that neither addressed the core problem or targeted the proper people: criminals. All of this dissatisfaction and discontent would lead to outrage when it was learned that government officials were receiving kickbacks for government contracts, rewarding exorbitant amounts of money to so-called "Liberal friends" and recklessly spending taxpayer money on ill-conceived and poorly administered government programs. After years of personal belt-tightening, it was learned by the Canadian people that the Canadian government was not practicing what it was preaching. The Canadian people were outraged and the federal Liberal majority was reduced to a Liberal minority, and, gradually, relegated to the position of opposition as the long despised Conservative party took the helm as minority government of Canada.
Other examples of these three phases leading to remarkable change in the realm of politics include the ouster of David Peterson's Ontario Liberal government to the shocked but newly elected NDP government of Bob Rae, and the ouster of Bob Raes NDP government to the "Common Sense Revolution" of Mike Harris' Conservatives, and finally the ouster of Mike's two term government to the McGuinty Liberals.
Dissatisfaction gets the people whispering, discontent gets the people shouting, and outrage gets the people moving... The result is change. Often long overdue, but always necessary.
I tend to distinguish dissatisfaction from discontent for purely academic reasons, but I'm sure that most would tend to think of the two as being the same. I will attempt to explain the difference between these two phases in this post, and, where possible, provide some examples of each phase.
The first phase, dissatisfaction, is really a case of people being unhappy with current circumstances, but not eager to offer protest or resistance. A good Canadian example of this phase is the budget cuts of the previous Federal Government.
In an effort to control spending, eliminate the deficit, and pay down the federal debt, the Liberal government reneged on their promise to scrap the GST, and embarked on a rather aggressive program of spending and service cuts. While many Canadians were not pleased with this situation, they were tolerant and saw the merit in the governments actions.
The second phase, discontent, manifests itself when people are unhappy with current circumstances and the hesitation to protest or resist becomes negligible. A good Canadian example of this, again sticking with the former federal Liberal government, is the national gun registry.
In an effort to appease anti-crime advocates, and to address gun related crimes, the federal government introduced legislation that would require all gun owners to register their firearms with the government. Gun owners saw this legislation as an assault on law abiding citizens and a useless and expensive facade in the war on gun crime. Further discontent arose when it was revealed that the gun registry was not only a pile of useless legislation, but also a very expensive pile of useless legislation.
The third phase, outrage, occurs when the people are no longer tolerant of the circumstances they find themselves in. The will to protest becomes great and the desire for change becomes pointed and determined. Again, sticking with the former federal Liberal government, I will offer an example of corruption as a launching pad for outrage.
Long dissatisfied with government spending cuts and relatively high taxation, the people would become discontent when they learned that they had been forced to tighten their own belts while the federal government spent billions of dollars on legislation like the gun registry -- legislation that neither addressed the core problem or targeted the proper people: criminals. All of this dissatisfaction and discontent would lead to outrage when it was learned that government officials were receiving kickbacks for government contracts, rewarding exorbitant amounts of money to so-called "Liberal friends" and recklessly spending taxpayer money on ill-conceived and poorly administered government programs. After years of personal belt-tightening, it was learned by the Canadian people that the Canadian government was not practicing what it was preaching. The Canadian people were outraged and the federal Liberal majority was reduced to a Liberal minority, and, gradually, relegated to the position of opposition as the long despised Conservative party took the helm as minority government of Canada.
Other examples of these three phases leading to remarkable change in the realm of politics include the ouster of David Peterson's Ontario Liberal government to the shocked but newly elected NDP government of Bob Rae, and the ouster of Bob Raes NDP government to the "Common Sense Revolution" of Mike Harris' Conservatives, and finally the ouster of Mike's two term government to the McGuinty Liberals.
Dissatisfaction gets the people whispering, discontent gets the people shouting, and outrage gets the people moving... The result is change. Often long overdue, but always necessary.